There is little doubt that the several of the measures being taken by the Central government, whatever is their positive impact on the economy, will hit the farmers, small traders and the even pensioners. So, measures are needed to protect them.

As to farmers, the government is taking certain steps one year after coming to power. They are already late as could be seen from the suicides of farmers in Maharastra, Telangana, Karanataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

The proposed crop insurance scheme will go a long way in helping the farmers if implemented properly. First of all, wide coverage of the scheme encompassing all sections of the farmers should be ensured. Secondly, compensation should be made within 30 to 45 days in the case of crop loss. This should be mandatory with delay in making the payments attracting penal interest.

However, it should be noted that the insurance scheme would be of help only in the in the case of crop loss/failure while fluctuation in prices of farm produce is a bigger problem faced by the farmers. The government should bring in better instruments to ensure remunerative prices. Indian farmers do not like to be on welfare.

Every crop in the country suffers from sudden fall in prices one time or another. Even rubber is no exception as could be seen from recent developments. Often the fall in prices of rubber are caused by imports and international developments such as fall in prices of petroleum. Fall in prices of rubber wood has compounded the problems as farmers used earnings from clear-felling of plantations to fund replanting.

The move of the Central government to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment in rubber and coffee plantations could be of disadvantage to small farmers. The funds flow would be accompanied by technology flow also, and small farmers may soon lose competitiveness.

The next information technology revolution will be in health care. However, we are far from ready.

Most doctors in India still use prescription pads and printed results of diagnostic tests. However, this is changing at least in respect of some big hospitals. Doctors could now access results of diagnostic tests online. Appointments with doctors are fixed online.The prescriptions, made online, instantly land on the desks of nurses and pharmacists. A company offering diagnostic services through a chain of laboratories in Kerala is now offering the results through Internet so that you can access them from home or hospital.

However, bigger things are yet to come. Telemedicine is already in vogue and its practice will get deeper and wider. Electronic health records and personal health records will make communication between patients and doctors as well as doctors and specialists easier. Medical images could be moved on the fly and examined by experts. Mobile platforms will increasingly used for monitoring of patients and communication of medical information.

At the next stage, computer programmes will also undertake analysis of medical images. Algorithms are already being developed for these purposes and they promise to detect problems that doctors fail to identify. CT scans will come with analysis. (The casualty would be doctors who expertise in evaluating images will gradually go into disuse. Programs will not be free of errors, but doctors can put the blame on the machines.)

The vistas that new technology is opening up in the health care sector are tremendous. It will now be possible to ‘scan’ large populations for diseases and accumulated data could be sent for diagnosis and analysis for specialists. For example, local health care technicians could be trained to capture images such as that of the retina using small devices and sent to doctors for detection of various diseases such as diabetic retinopathy. Trials for detection of retinopathy have already been done this way in Australia. The United States is already implementing Health IT program through a National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Incentives are being offered for adoption of the technology.

The Digital India initiative is to have components that focus on healthcare. Indian IT companies such as Infosys are already working on the design and programming part. Cognizant is also emerging as a major player in the area. So, it is high time that the Centre and State government starting training youth to tap the emerging opportunities. The government also needs to come up with guidelines to hospitals regarding inter-operability and other norms. Legal protection of medical data, encryption and other privacy concerns need to be addressed as we go digital.